Grill time

Sorry, forgot to take pics again today. I promise I'll do it tomorrow.

Tonight was grill night. The propane tank got delivered around 6, then we had to shoot out to Lowes because we didn't have a grill scraper, and of course found a myriad of other things there while we looked at the grill supplies. We also got a padlock for the gate, which gives us both an incredible peace of mind, knowing that some idiot can't just come and open the gate on us. Of course it had sort of a lock already, but still, having it double locked is comforting.

Now, onto the grilling fest. First of all, hubby and I have never grilled on a propane grill before. I'm a mental case and hate things that could potentially explode. When I was a kid, I had a very vivid dream that I would croak in an explosion and fire, so I pretty much figure that's my destiny, so allowing hubby to buy a large combustable and possibly explosive device was a big leap of faith for me. I stayed inside (close to the phone) while he lit it for the first time. He made one gesture that made me leap toward the phone, but he was actually gesturing that it lit and all was well.

So, we get the burners burning, and they're burning blue, which is a good thing apparently. Yellow flame, sputtering and noise is a bad thing, apparently. We tried bratwurst as our first grilled thing. Later on I read that they're really "juicy", so you need to poke them and pre cook them a tad, which we didn't do, so we ended up with flames shooting out all over, and me leaping around yelling 'IS IT SUPPOSE TO DO THAT??" We've already planned to go out and buy "Grilling for Dummies" to make sure what is going on should go on.

The brats were actually pretty tasty, and I'm not a big brat lover. Definitely better than cooking them in a pan though. I bought some dark spicy mustard to go on them, and either I was starving (it was 10pm before they were cooked and ready), or the grill actually makes a big difference, but they were pretty damn good. Tomorrow is hot dog/hamburger day before we go out to watch Lewis Black rant and rave at the Lyric in Baltimore.

The dogs are really loving the new deck because there are now endless possibilities for slaloming around the support beams. Meeshka has found the nook under the stairs and is slowly making a body impression under the stairs and calling it her hidey hole. She still runs toward where the old stairs were, thinking she can slip under, only to find them gone. I'm sure it won't take long for her to find the new hidey hole in time of need.

I've also discovered that at night, the deck absolutely blocks out all light to the left side of the yard. We'll have to figure out how and where to put the solar flood light soon so they dogs can't go back there and do devious things. It also kinda blocks out the rest of the light, but the dogs still love zooming around the deck in the dark.

Overall, except for not knowing the basic ins and outs of the grill, which I'm sure we'll learn, we love the deck, love the yard, love the gate and fence, and love everything about the construction. It hardly seems like we went through so much to get it.